The final full week of the basketball off-season is here. “time will tell.” is a common saying that seems very appropriate for this point in the basketball year. From a high school basketball standpoint, this is a great quote just before the start of tryouts and the season.
A player’s performance, improvement, and skills will be evaluated very closely during the 2 – 5 day high school basketball tryout period. The results of how a player prepared for the season will be very clear to teammates, and more importantly coaches, It is a scary but critical question for all high school basketball players: “What have you done with your time this off-season?”
The basketball off-season is an incredibly long time. It is a minimum of 36 weeks and 252 days. Realistically how much time can be spent working on improving as a basketball player – probably 252 – 504 hours on basketball skills. One to two hours per day seems to be a reasonable amount of time to commit to baskeball workout. It is certainly more than most high school players will commit. Players will miss workouts, go on vacations, work, get a driver’s license, etc. So even committed players will probably not come close to reaching 252 hours.
What a player has done during the hours of the off-season working on basketball will determine his fate for the upcoming season.
According to our calculations, with 14 days left, a player has somewhere between 14 and 28 hours of basketball left in the off-season (1 – 2 hour workouts per day). Not much time. Right now, there is absolutely nothing that can be done about what you have done during the previous weeks of off-season. So whether you’ve worked out religiously, or hardly picked up a ball, it is time for you to face the music.
Fom this day forward, make a commitment to knowing your role, embracing your role, and mastering your role. Now is not the time to do anything out of the ordinary. If you have not been lifting during the off-season. Don’t start lifting, it will probably hurt your chances of playing well at tryouts.
What Can A Player Do?
Set effort and repetition goals. We never like to set up players for failure. Setting a goal of averaging 22 points per game is a recipe for failure. Teams can play a box in one and deny a player every inch of the court. A player may get hurt. A player may be on the team with an incredible scorer who will take the majority of shots.
We prefer sitting effort goals. We also firmly believes that all goals right now should be no longer than a week or two. It is a short season. And we like to break it down into manageable time periods. One of the most exciting and important days of a basketball season is the first day of tryouts.
- Set a goal to be early.
- Work as hard as you can.
- Listen with your eyes and ears.
- Take more pride in your defense than anyone else on your team.
- Have fun.
- Be a supportive teammate.
Conditioning: It is not too late to improve your conditioning for basketball, but don’t overdo it. If you haven’t run a mile in over a month don’t try and run three. If you haven’t done, any basketball conditioning drills, start slow. Be reasonable. Only do conditioning that will not result in pain or injury. But being in shape is a critical factor in having a great tryout.
Shoot Free Throws:
Many coaches like to place players on the free-throw line with a chance to make one free throw or the team will run during tryouts. This gives the coach an opportunity to see who can shoot the ball under pressure. He can look at the players free-throw routine, and get a good sense of if the player is a shooter or not. And lastly, he can see who is capable of making a big shot, down one with five seconds left in a game that will determine the state championship, a league title, or simply a win. So a player never can waste time shooting free throws.
Play Basketball: Ultimately, being able to play team basketball well is what coaches are looking for during tryouts. Playing 1 v. 1, 2 v. 2. 3 v. 3. and 5 v. 5 will help you to start to get into the mentality of what it means to play team basketball. When you play these games, focus on talking on defense, playing hard, and moving without the ball. At some point during tryouts you will be playing basketball, so this is probably the best use of your time this week if you are playing competition at your level.
Know Your Range: Having great shot selection at tryouts is such an underated aspect of tryouts. If you are not a good shooter, shooting the ball and missing more shots than you make will not help you make the team. I would like to repeat “If you’re not a GOOD shooter, don’t shoot the ball!” Take hug percentage shots. For some players this may mean only shooting wide open layups.
Define Shooting Range: One of the craziest things is that most basketball players at all levels do not know what their range is. The definition of shooting range we use is the spot where a player can consistently make five shots in a row.
If you can find a rebounder, this makes this drill a lot easier. But it can be completed with one player as well. Simply start under the basket and shoot the basketball. Stay at one spot until you make five in a row. Continue working your way back to a spot where you can no longer make five in a row. This spot is out of your range.
To be a good shooter, a player must have good shooting fundamentals. A shot develops over a career and cannot be significant changed in 7 to 14 days. So the shot is what it is. Continue to work on your shot and make minor adjustments, and try to get as many repetitions as you can.
Take a step in to completely recognize what your range is. do yourself a favor take another step in. During tryouts do not take a shot that is further back than this location. One little known fact for players trying out for a team is that players who shoot often and miss often have exes put next to their name. Players who shoot rarely and make shots while doing the other little things often get noticed.
Players who are guaranteed a spot on the team should also follow and shoot only in their range. Because now, if you have made a team must find a way to get on the four and get quality minutes. You will only do this by knowing your role and knowing what a good shot for you is. One of the biggest reasons a basketball player will get pulled from a game. He’s poor shot selection. Do not let this happen to you.
Set effort and repetition goals. We never like to set up players for failure. Setting a goal of averaging 22 points per game is a recipe for failure. Teams can play a box in one and deny a player every inch of the court. A player may get hurt. A player may be on the team with an incredible scorer who will take the majority of shots.
We prefer sitting effort goals. We also firmly believes that all goals right now should be no longer than a week or two. It is a short season. And we like to break it down into manageable time periods. One of the most exciting and important days of a basketball season is the first day of tryouts.
- Set a goal to be early.
- Work as hard as you can.
- Listen with your eyes and ears.
- Take more pride in your defense than anyone else on your team.
- Have fun.
- Be a supportive teammate.
At the end of practice go up to coach look him in the eye apps give Max a handshake and say thanks Coach. Looking forward to tomorrow. Go home get your rest and get up again the next day or